Before the Chūnin Exams had even fully concluded, Hagoromo returned to the Iwagakure-front line as soon as his assigned duties were complete.
Not long after that, Sarutobi Asuma, following an extended period of continuous, high-intensity, high-output, large-scale inhumane medical treatment, recovered at an astonishing pace.
Through personal experience, he proved one thing very clearly:
Medical ninjutsu doesn't just have to be delicate—
it can also be extremely violent.
With Asuma back on his feet, Hagoromo's squad finally returned to full combat effectiveness.
After all, Asuma was essentially the team's No. 2—without him, operational flexibility was inevitably limited.
Soon after, the squad resumed its routine patrol operations.
Their mission zone remained the same:
the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain, monitoring Amegakure shinobi movements and preventing small enemy squads from infiltrating.
This time, however, their assignment included combat authorization in addition to reconnaissance.
That said, the combat parameters were tightly restricted.
Hagoromo's team was only permitted to engage enemy squads of comparable size—four-man cells like their own—in order to maintain balanced engagements.
If they encountered medium or large enemy formations, they were not expected to fight to the death.
In such cases, Hagoromo's priority remained unchanged:
Gather intelligence. Transmit intelligence. Withdraw.
As for deep-penetration infiltration missions like before, those became far less frequent.
After all, the Land of Rain was not Konoha's backyard.
The enemy wasn't stupid—repeated infiltrations would inevitably provoke retaliation.
Unexpectedly, once their new patrol rotation began, they barely encountered any Rain shinobi at all.
On the rare occasions they did meet, the Amegakure ninja never crossed the border line.
They would retreat immediately upon contact—no attacks, no probing.
Combined with earlier intelligence indicating that Rain outposts had been evacuated, Hagoromo began to suspect something.
Was Hanzō of the Salamander actually pulling back?
After all, the great nations were ruthless.
For a village like Amegakure, even with a so-called "demigod" like Hanzō, standing against the Five Great Nations was a losing game.
If you can't win, you stop playing.
Otherwise, you lose everything—right down to your last pair of underwear.
And as it turned out, Hagoromo's guess wasn't far off.
For nearly two months, Hagoromo's squad patrolled their operational zone.
The border remained eerily calm.
Rain shinobi withdrew almost completely, and clashes between the two sides dwindled to nearly zero.
When the enemy goes silent, that silence itself becomes the most significant development.
Just as Hagoromo was beginning to question whether such high-density reconnaissance was still necessary, the squad received a recall order from Jiraiya.
"…Enter the Land of Rain? Openly?"
Jiraiya's words caught Hagoromo completely off guard.
What did that even mean?
Originally, Hagoromo had assumed their new task would involve another covert infiltration—probing Hanzō's next move.
After all, the border's unnatural calm was unsettling.
Either Hanzō truly intended to end the war…
or he was plotting something far worse.
Given Hanzō's unpredictable nature, both possibilities seemed equally likely.
Hagoromo glanced at the three teammates behind him.
Counting himself, that made four people.
Marching openly into Amegakure with just the four of them?
That wasn't diplomacy—that was delivering oneself as ingredients.
Did they seriously think Hanzō was some kind of sickly housecat?
Had they forgotten how the title "Legendary Sannin" was earned?
That title wasn't a badge of honor—it was a mark of defeat.
Defeated by whom?
No one had forgotten.
Seeing the confusion on all four faces, Jiraiya explained calmly:
"Not long ago, Hanzō formally requested peace talks with Konoha.
Based on large-scale reconnaissance—including your squad's findings—and Amegakure's movements over the past few months, we've provisionally judged his intentions to be genuine."
"As a result, Konoha is preparing to send a diplomatic envoy to the Land of Rain."
Now Hagoromo understood.
Hanzō had backed down.
But that raised a new question.
Was he the envoy?
That seemed… unlikely.
"So I'm the envoy?" Hagoromo asked skeptically.
"Because if I walk into Amegakure, I don't think I'll be treated like an envoy."
"I'll either be treated like 'envoy' with the pronunciation wrong,
or beaten so badly I won't be able to pronounce anything at all."
Inside the tent, the three men merely twitched their lips.
Kurenai Yūhi, however, very much wanted to kick Hagoromo.
She was beautiful and elegant—
and he'd just painted an extremely unpleasant mental image.
Jiraiya, meanwhile, looked at Hagoromo as if he were an idiot.
Hagoromo had overthought it—by a lot.
"Your squad's job is to escort the envoy," Jiraiya clarified.
"Only someone with sufficient political weight is qualified to negotiate with Hanzō."
Even with his gourd equipment, Hagoromo might qualify as "heavy"—
but clearly not that kind of weight.
Escort duty only?
Hagoromo relaxed slightly.
Which left one final question.
"Then who's the envoy?"
In Konoha, the number of people who qualified as truly "heavyweight" figures was extremely limited.
Jiraiya answered with four words:
"Shimura Danzō."
The answer made perfect sense—and yet was deeply unsettling.
Sending Danzō to conduct "friendly diplomacy"?
Who exactly were they trying to scare?
At that point, either Danzō would terrify Hanzō into tears,
or Hanzō would terrify Danzō into tears.
Was there any room for friendship there?
Why not just send Danzō to marry Hanzō instead?
They'd make such a compatible couple.
The Shimura clan was, after all, a distinguished lineage—
having produced many legendary figures.
In Naruto canon, Shimura Danzō was a deeply complex character.
Neither purely evil nor purely good—someone who simply could not be defined by such binaries.
Hagoromo had met Danzō once before. Not long ago.
From his previous life's knowledge, his understanding of Danzō was limited:
Konoha's shadow
Fond of external "upgrades"
Particularly obsessed with grafting Sharingan and Hashirama cells onto himself
In truth, as a disciple of the Second Hokage, Danzō was unquestionably a powerful shinobi.
His primary combat style relied on Wind Release.
That much was easy to tell.
After all, he bore a cross-shaped scar on his face.
Legend had it that, as a youth, while practicing Vacuum Wave, he'd lost control of his breath output and sliced his own face.
A valuable life lesson:
Even the most sinister, scheming, perpetually single old men
may once have had moments of astonishing clumsiness.
After a brief pause, Hagoromo spoke again.
"With Lord Danzō's intelligence network… does he really need us to escort him into Amegakure?"
"Honestly, I feel like he probably knows the Land of Rain better than we do."
Probably was an understatement.
Hagoromo was certain of it.
Jiraiya turned his gaze away.
From Hagoromo's angle, only Jiraiya's profile was visible—his expression unreadable.
Then, in a perfectly ordinary tone, Jiraiya said:
"You're right. He doesn't need you to guide him."
"In fact, it's his people who will be guiding you."
"But—
you still must guide him."
The sentence twisted back on itself.
Yet somehow, Hagoromo understood perfectly.
They weren't escorting Danzō.
They were watching him.
Jiraiya clearly did not trust Shimura Danzō the way the Third Hokage did.
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